Rabbi Marvin Hier On Munich

He talks about a conversation between the Israeli leader of the mission, Avner, and his handler, Ephraim, in which they discuss how Avner doesn't want to be a part of the 'cycle' any more.

He [Ephraim] could have started by reminding him what he said when he first sent him on his mission: “You are not terrorists throwing hand grenades at buses or machine-gunning people in the theater lobby.... There will be 11 [terrorist] names on your list. If you get only three, we will be disappointed, but you did nothing wrong. If you get no one, your mission would be a failure, but still you’ve done nothing wrong. If you get them all, but you also hurt one innocent person, you will have done wrong. Remember this.” (This is not in the film but appears in the book, “Vengeance,” on which "Munich” was based.)

This conversation is not in the film??? I guess SS didn't want to show any humanity in the Israelis. Unreal. Hier continues on this thread with another salient point.

I would have wanted to pursue the conversation further in light of what has happened since Munich, asking Avner, how should we confront terrorists? Should we wait for the U.N. General Assembly? You know how many times they have condemned Israel, but not a single time have they condemned a Palestinian terrorist organization?

If we didn’t go after the terrorists and their leaders, tens of thousands of civilians could be slaughtered. The late Golda Meir used to say that if that happened to Israel, she was sure that the eulogies would be profound, but she would prefer that the State of Israel live.

I'm with Golda. And Hier. But I guess that doesn't fit in with Spielberg's leftist fantasies. Hier knowingly points out that if daily terror attacks were happening in the US, France or England, we all know they wouldn't think twice about going after the terrorists. No kidding. I can't imagine that Spielberg would have a problem with that. Yet he and so many others begrudge little Israel from doing the same. Why do Jews have to roll over and take the punches? And why would Spielberg, who knows something about the phrase, "never again," expect or want them to do so? It doesn't make sense. Perhaps I'm expecting too much by thinking he should make sense. Hier realizes the frivolity of this expectation.

After the Holocaust, there are not that many Jews left in the world to sacrifice. I can’t wait for Islamic fundamentalist jihadists to begin treating Jews as human beings.

By the way, from what I know of the Bible, one never loses his righteousness by confronting evil. We learn that from Moses himself: “And Moses turned this way and that way [in our time, its meaning could be to the United Nations and to the European community], but he saw that there was no man, [no one was willing to confront the evil taskmaster] so he struck down the Egyptian....” (Exodus 2:12).

No one loses righteousness by confronting evil....exactly. And this is something the far left would be smart to realize as they try to handicap Israel and our own administration from doing everything they can to protect their people.

I think Mark is right. This movie will gain undeserved credibility just by virtue of the fact that Spielberg is a Jew. But, the fact remains that he based this film on a largely discredited book. I actually read that the author, George Jonas, took a cab driver at his word that he had been the head of the Mossad operation, based on nothing more than the fact that the guy spoke with an Israeli accent. If that story is true (and what definitely is true is that this cab driver had no involvement with the operation whatsoever), then Steven Spielberg and this movie are both totally pathetic.

I did see it and reviewed it on my site. The movie was a razor thin critique of the current war on terror. The absurd mention of treating the terrorist problem as a law enforcement issue and the rehash about the circle of violence were present.

Use your hard earned money on important things like houseplants or a decent cut of meat from the butcher.

What do you think about Abe Foxman's comment about Munich? I was a little thrown off by him. He was on FOX with a CAIR spokesman and there was some agreement between the two (It was almost too much to bare).